It’s interesting to realise that Australian Custom officers had no uniforms prior to December 1954. The buttons below may be from custom uniforms. They show the Australian Coat of Arms are made of made of a hard black plastic.

Published in the Morning Bulletin (Rockhampton,Qld) 22nd December 1954

I shared four Kookaburra buttons at the Collectors Club meeting last Tuesday. The sterling silver Kookaburra was most admired. Carol also has some Australian animal buttons (of course she does!) which she is sharing with us. We don’t know their origin. Enjoy!

My Australian menagerie.

Carol’s Kookaburras: The green button is of a different design. The other 3 are the same design as my 2 glass buttons. They come in 2 sizes (that we know of) of various colour glass with various painted finishes.

I was told an intriguing story by an ‘older’ button collector. Apparently, once upon a time Beutron was taking legal action against Beauclaire for using a certain method of button making. Mr Beauclaire, who had worked for Beutron before leaving, however, claimed that he had invented the method in dispute. The lady was told this was happening by the salesgirl in the drapery shop she frequented.

Try as I may, I haven’t found any evidence to back up the story, but it wouldn’t be the first time such a thing had happened. There were several men of the surname Beauclere (rather than Beauclaire) in the electoral rolls last century who were engineers, including in Sydney where Beutron were based. The case may not have gone to court, or not have been reported in the newspapers.

Latest finds: Beauclaire buttons

2 more variations of this design (see also the Beauclaire page for several other variations).

3 different sizes and multiple shades of this flower design.

A non-pearlescent version of this lacy design (see also the Beauclaire page for 3 carded examples).

On Tuesday at the buttons collectors meeting we had a presentation on ceramic buttons. The question came up about Australian ceramic buttons. It was asked as to whether Drayton (Drayton Bros, later Sunshine Potteries) produced buttons. From Sunshine, Victoria, they produced telegraph and electrical insulators, points and covers as well as ink-wells for schools and crockery for Victorian railways, but I didn’t find evidence of buttons. Let me know if you know better!

Cooper & Cooke ceramics, in Glenhuntly, Melbourne, set up in 1937 to make porcelain flowers, and later made jugs, vases, urns and dishes. During WW2 they made insulators, casseroles, coffee pots and buttons for the Army. The firm moved to Long Gully in Bendigo in 1976 and closed in 1996. I’ve sent an email to the ceramics Museum in Holbrook to see if they have any more information or photos of these. If anyone owns one…please send me a shot!!

Welcome to you on this sunny but chilly Queen’s Birthday weekend! Carol has been busy again sending photos of her collection. Do check out the Maxart, Walkers and Beutron pages.

You may wonder what I do with all these buttons. The cards I am storing/displaying in”pocket pages” that are sold to collectors of swap and other collectible cards. This way I am building up a library of Australian buttons. The loose buttons by individual manufacturers I am going to display ‘scrap-booking style’. Take a look. What do you think of these?

Just spent a couple of days in Gippsland and managed to collect 2 groups of items. One was some cards of 1960s-80s cards of buttons from various Op-shops. The other was photos of mail boxes… no I’m not mad… just have a look and a laugh.